A Proper Place To Die
by Akirelee
Summary: He had never touched any body with that hand, and yet now he placed it to her cheek.--A Rin/Sessh pairing. Lots of violence and adult themes. Reader be warned.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Notes.

This used to be the first several chapters of this fic, I'm reorganizing it now because it erks me to no end. Please Read And Review. If you think my Sesshomaru doesn't have a lot of personality, please look harder. He really isn't the type to go explaining his feelings. Also, please think of this fic as you would an episode of Inu Yasha, which, by the way, I DO NOT OWN. It's based off the anime, because I rather prefer it to the Manga, and I also prefer choosing one or the other and not some strange combination of the two. Just one more thing, you will see little to no Japanese in any fic that I write, if you would like a Japanese version, however, feel free to let me know and I will happily consider obliging. I personally despise when authors use large amounts of foreign languages in stories meant for the readers of a particular language, long story. Hope you like.

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"I did not want to do this." I whispered, my eyes half closed and my face tilted toward the sickle moon.

~*~*~*~*

After Naraku was defeated I was sent to live with Lady Kaede in the village where the Bone Eater's Well belonged. I was young, but even then I understood that there would never be a similar division in the lives of Sesshomaru-sama and I, or the makeshift group we traveled with. I understood that the terrible hold both Naraku and Magatsuhiand even the Shikon Jewel had over our lives had been relinquished.

A cloud had been banished from above our heads, and at that very moment, just as you can never replace a fallen petal to its rose, we simply no longer fit.

I hadn't cried at first, when Kaede died. I was so young, and all I knew was that one more thing in my life had proved only to be transient. I felt emotions, lots of them, as I looked at her lifeless body upon the straw mat she had lain ill upon for weeks; a small smile upon her thin, wrinkled lips.

I ran into the forest, away from that smile, and those emotions, and every memory I had that I wanted to disappear, just as the life of the lady before me had.

As I finally stopped at an opening among Abdne trees, a solitary flush of color caught my eyes. It was a rose that had managed to grow among jagged rocks and stone, a solitary flush of color against its adverse surroundings.

I snatched it out of the ground and relieved it of its burden, five full, vibrant red petals. One for Jaken, another for Ah-un. One for Kohaku. One for Sesshomaru-sama. And finally one for me. They fell to my bare feet, and I stared at them for several long moments before I fell to my knees, onto the pointed bed of rocks before me, and immediately began trying to undo what I had just done.

When I finally realized I couldn't fix the flower before me, the first of what soon became hundreds of tears leaked from my eyes. I cried childishly and without stopping; my head bowed so that my dark hair covered my face, petals and stem in either hand.

_Was it selfish of me to miss Naraku?_ To miss the hideous shadow of a man who had managed to unintentionally give me the greatest blessings of my life, only to take them away in his death? Did he know that his losing would acidicly seep through the very fibers of my friendships, of the threads that bound me to the others, so that they eventually became a whisper of themselves in my mind? A faint memory of the bond we once held? Did he know that I would one day mourn his passing? While I kneeled upon stone that cut my knees, clutching a dying rose in my fingertips; my Kimono wet from tears, my cheeks flushed and feverish from strain.

I sobbed, and gulped for air. I sobbed and gulped for air. I sobbed and gulped for air, and after what seemed like hours finally I only gulped, my tears spent. But no fresh air entered my lungs.

I looked up. Thick miasma had begun to curl its way through the trees, sentient and purposeful; I knew it was coming for me. Killing trees and destroying grass, I watched it advance, a purplish cloud of death and despair. It clung to me. Wrapping tightly around my face and forcing itself into my mouth and nostrils. I collapsed into the rock before me. Paralyzed. Wanting to run, but with legs that could not move.

The only things I saw before my darkened vision faded to black were those red rose petals. And then I was out. Certain I would never see anything again.

-------

When I awoke it was to squint through eyes that were swollen shut. I was naked, lying face first upon freezing paved stone, my kimono seemingly having dissolved into tattered pieces around me. There was no question in my mind, I knew I hadn't died and gone to heaven.

I put my trembling hands to the ground, noting that the effects of the miasma had not worn off. As I attempted to sit up, a cold voice rang high and clear, it dissipated strangely, as if swallowed up in the very structure of the room around me. I had not realized I was not alone.

"I did not tell you to move." It said…_he said. _It was a man. My body tensed, I immediately froze in place, half way between laying down and adjusting, and at a standstill as to whether or not I should instantly start running.

Something told me to stay; that there was nowhere to go. Or maybe it was his voice. His voice had not allowed room for negotiation.

I chanced a sideways glance, my head still inclined to the floor but my eyes sliding to my right. Miasma stood at bay; I was certain I was encircled. It was toxic, venomous even from this distance. It made the tips of my fingers and the skin of my back feel corrosive, as if it would soon dissolve from me just as my clothing had; it seared my swollen eyes and caught in my throat. Each short breath I took was acerbic, and I could not even force the air to reach my lungs without coughing it up again.

A hard object collided with my bare back and I was forced fully onto the stone once more, I felt my tendering skin burn and tear from the force. I let out a muffled scream through a mouthful of pavement. I felt a hand curl through my hair and I realized the object in my back was a foot. It soon became his knee, the man had swiftly knelt, his other knee upon the stone on my left side.

It was his hair that I saw first. A long golden braid adorned in golden threads and beads. He yanked my head away from the ground, and I looked into his face, my back bent upward uncomfortably; his knee had not moved.

He was ethereal, his skin shimmered, his eyes gleamed, and nothing of him seemed to exist in the quite the same sense that I did. He wore an ornate white robe, with metal armor in all the places of a warrior. His eyes were the same color as his hair, golden spheres with no pupils; a fleck of cerulean war paint beneath one eye.

"Who are you?" I croaked. My neck was bent in such a way that it obstructed my air way even more, with all the effort it took me to form even that simple sentence I felt what could only be warm blood drip from my mouth. The toll of the miasma would only get worse.

He threw me away from him with force that confirmed my suspicion that he was not human. I landed on my back; my body exposed in a way no human man had ever seen it before, and certainly no demon. I cried out in pain and jerked to cover myself, but suddenly his orders repeated themselves to me, "I did not tell you to move." My arms recoiled, snapping to the ground on either side of me. I was not entirely certain that I committed this action of my own volition. _But maybe I had… Hadn't I?_

"I am but a ghost." He said, he had not moved since throwing me, I could see he stood quite still, his armors shimmering with no light to aid them except for his own otherworldly gleam, no expression on a face that could be considered charming. He moved closer to me, and then closer, but it was as if he only crossed any distance every other second; his leg extending without him having taken a step to make it do so. "I am the first demon, Rennesaiga."

He came closer once more, "I am going to kill you." He said.

Somehow, I had figured as much.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Sorry to my readers, I know me shifting these chapters around will throw you guys off a little bit, but it has to be done. Love ya guys. Keep R&R. I don't own Inu Yasha.

"Not just any one can pick my flower, child. It's purpose is to ward me, trap me in my least existent of states in the very atmosphere around it and cure my miasma for miles around. Many before you have stumbled through the forest there; and many have noticed the treat of the reddest of roses, embedded in a graveyard of stones. But only those with the purest of souls have ever been able to pluck it; allowing me and my hollow castle to metastasize around them, just as I am to you now. The priest who planted my rose new not how to kill me, but only to vanquish me, foolishly believing that one day someone with the ability to truly destroy the only demon ever known to harbor a soul would pluck it and at last remove me from this world."

"So then…shouldn't you be happy with me?" I asked him, sobbing, more blood oozing from my mouth. "I freed you…I set you free!"

He was upon me at last, kneeling inches away from my face. I wanted to cover myself, my naked body. I wanted to be back at Kaede's bedside, I wanted to run.

"No." Was his simple reply. "For my soul to fully return to this world I must absorb the souls of others, just as I have with every poor human who has ever wandered into this place before you. My term here will at last end with my amalgamation of your soul, and you will remain here in my stead, forever more in the world of the Everliving."

"NO!" I coughed, ripping my lips free from the blood that had begun to dry upon them.

"I must break your spirit," Rennesaiga said, "and then, hopeless, defenseless, tired, and alone, you will offer it to me."

He reached out for me, as if to touch my face, and suddenly the paralyses I seemed to have been suffering from dissolved. I toppled backward out of his reach, and then, with one terrified look at the miasma, I plunged into it.

~*~*~*~*

I ran as fast as I could, coughing up blood, barely able to open my now bleeding eyes. I tripped over an object and fell to my face, my hands barely breaking my fall. I felt my nose snap as it struck against the stone. Without hesitating I leapt back to my feet, still coughing, still crying blood, the skin of my hands now rough as if they had been scoured clean; the miasma was deteriorating my skin. I vaguely noted that exactly what I had fallen over was a girl, even younger than I, scrubbing the floor of Rennesaiga's castle wordlessly. I looked back at her as I ran, her skin was peeling away from her face and there were no whites to her eyes. I knew her soul had departed from her long ago.

I kept running, horrified. I don't know for how much longer I ran before I realized that the miasma around me had begun to take shape, to form itself into structures that soon resembled people. It was forming itself into the shape of my feelings, of my memories, of my fears, and before me as I ran scenes of my childhood played as if they were strung by the composer of a grand orchestra.

Next to the demons who murdered my parents were the wolves who murdered me. Beyond them were the townspeople who mocked me as a love-less child. And beyond them was Sesshomaru; grey and skeletal in the miasma version of him that was killing me as I ran. I whispered his name, said it to myself, as if he could save me now. I ran through the demons, who dispersed around me, the wolves, who chased me, and the mocking townspeople whose out stretched hands curled around me, their fingers seeping into my mouth, choking me with the miasma once more.

I never made it to Sesshomaru.

Rennesaiga had caught up to me at last, wrenching an arm under my neck and holding me close to him. "Who is that man?" he whispered into my ear, I realized with some amount of dread that he seemed slightly less ethereal than before. Did that mean he had come closer, in just those few minutes, to breaking my spirit? "When I am done with you, it will be him that I kill next. I will use his despair over your death to fuel the relinquishing of his own soul."

"Sesshomaru doesn't have a soul." I snapped, suddenly bitter over the memory of him leaving me in Kaede's village, another bloody tear splashed down my face.

The miasma began to reform, replaying the scene before my eyes. I had not realized, nearly three years ago, just how angry I was at my lord. I re-watched the memory of him walking out of my life in anguish, watched Jaken on his hills and Ah-un trailing steadily behind them and remembered that they were his true companions, not I. He had finally shed his burden, the day he left me behind. I let out an aggravated grunt of rage. I watched the thirteen year old me held back by an aging Kaede as I cried. I had not wanted him to leave me. The first friend I ever had. The first person I had ever loved in any capacity of the sentiment.

Rennesaiga was behind me now, restraining me in much the same way I had been that day, yet there were no calming condolences from him. He held me by my neck and I jabbed at him weakly; kicking and attempting not to cry. Before me I could see now that there was more to this place than just miasma and pavement. We were in what appeared to be a great hall, and facing an open veranda with a long black banister that elegantly curved the length of it, where beyond it the green grass and fresh air that I had strayed from remained, some amount of miles in the distance, just out of the radius of Rennesaiga's miasma.

_If I could only get there. _

"Give up." Rennesaiga crooned in my ear, he kissed my cheek and where his lips were my skin burned. I struggled against him more, but once again the miasma had begun to swirl, to curl around me. Prying my lips apart and forcing its way into my nose; forming more bad memories and choking me with them.

To my surprise Rennesaiga pressed on toward the veranda, with me still caught in his vice like grip. "Is this where you thought you were going," he growled into my ear, "you thought you were going to leave? Just looking at it brought a thread of false hope into your foolish little heart, didn't it?"

I knew he must be right, it had. For his movements were suddenly jerky again, my hope had worked to give him less solidity. But it did not cause him to stop pressing forward, closer and closer to the veranda. Maybe if I just kept looking at it, kept hoping I could escape, he would weaken, his grip would lapse, and I would be able to run at last.

We reached the banister, and his grip did slacken. For a moment I thought I had my chance. And then he bent me over the railing.

-----

Hours ago now, Sesshomaru had tilted his head. Inclined to believe he had heard someone call his name. Perhaps not just someone, but someone in particular. He did not hear it again, but he did not need to. He was always sure of himself; certain about all things and at all times.

Rin had called his name.

He had left the young girl to be cared for by another human. It had been a wise decision. She would not live forever. She needed to settle down, experience the life of a normal human. Choose a mate, breed and die like the rest of her species before she got too far along in her lifespan to do so. It was a well-known fact of human life. They did not seem disturbed by it, and so he was not. Or had not been, until he met the little girl he had at one time allowed to become his ward.

There had been a time, even after he had left her with her keeper, that he had come to visit her often. He had brought her gifts from his travels, a toy here, and a treat there, mostly as atonement to himself. The first time he returned to her, it had been a simple courtesy visit. He had not wanted someone associated with himself to give him an unsatisfactory reputation. She had grown so much. As if by the blink of an eye. He wondered momentarily if she had ever grown as much in all the time she traveled with him. He returned again, just to mark her progress, and once more she had aged. Just that quickly. In time that passed to him like the days of a single week, she had developed from one of the most adolescent of human forms, to one of the most matured.

He couldn't help but wonder just how much longer she had before she would become dust in the earth just as her fathers' before her. One day it became more acceptable for him to stay away. He wouldn't watch the human die. Go from young ward to dead in a fraction of his life.

But she had called his name. He heard it from her lips and did not hesitate to go to it.

He had risen from the trunk of the tree he had been resting at and instantly took off in the opposite direction of the one he had been walking up until that point. Jaken leapt from Ah-un's hide, screaming for him to wait, he had not packed up camp. But Sesshomaru kept walking and that walk became a run.

He came upon Rin's scent and followed it further Northward, until the point when it suddenly stopped. Sesshomaru glared down. At his feet were the petals of a rose, and Rin's scent remained among them. He stooped to run a long-fingered hand across them, and then without warning he unleashed Tenseiga.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Don't own Inu Yasha.

I wouldn't cry. I wouldn't let Rennesaiga become any more real than he already had. I would not let him have my soul. Still, he forced himself inside of me, and I tried to scream, but could not get enough of the putrid miasma-filled air around me into my lungs to do so.

Rennesaiga pulled my hair so that my head was as far back as my neck would allow, I thought it might snap. Hoped it might snap. Could he still have my soul if I died? I let out another cry, this one feebler than the last.

And then I heard a sound quite unlike any other I had heard in this place so far. Footsteps. Slowly and purposefully striding the length of the stone room.

I spit out more blood, attempting to find the source, but my eyes were the only part of me that could move as Rennesaiga wound his fist more thoroughly into my hair; I felt several strands depart from my scalp.

Rennesaiga heard them, too, but at the moment when he would have turned to face them, it seemed something stopped him doing so.

And then he spoke:

"Move."

"…Sesshomaru-sama" I breathed. Was this another memory? Could Sesshomaru be here in the Everlife now? And then I remember his Tenseiga, the sworld with the ability to destroy what does not belong in this world.

Rennesaiga did not relinquish me, a few bloody tears at last seeped from the corners of my eyes. He had not pulled out, but crooned, "Just what can a sword do to a ghost?"

-----

Sesshomaru only momentarily observed this demon, the profile of his face, the golden irises and long plait of golden hair; the ancient armor he wore with an obsolete coat of arms presented proudly upon its back. He did not belong here. Without any hesitation, what could only be described as lightning formed around the core of his Tenseiga, and in the same instant Sesshomaru plunged it into Rennesaiga's flesh. There was a moment when Rennesaiga gave a small "o" of surprise, one which Sesshomaru could only see in profile as he died on the tip of his sword, still facing the open veranda.

Sesshomaru removed the blade. Flicking it so the remaining traces of blood slid off and splattered upon the pavement. Rennesaiga crumpled beneath him.

"Rin." He said simply. She had collapsed against the banister, tears of blood leaking out of her eyes and trailing along the side of her face. He sheathed Tenseiga and picked her up with the arm he used to wield it, then carried her out of the castle effortlessly. His face an emotionless masque.

-----

When I awoke I was nestled on a bed of soft pine needles, laying beneath the stars, a fire crackling beside me. Momentarily I wondered if everything had been a miserable dream, then I realized I was covered with Sesshomaru-sama's fur boa.

I reclosed my eyes and inhaled the scent of the boa, trying to get the lingering taste of miasma off the back of my tongue; trying to forget all of the violations that had been committed upon me in only a matter of hours. I felt sore, my skin still screamed from the onslaught of toxic abuse it had endured. The swelling in my eyes had been reduced, though now a thin layer of crust consumed them, I had been crying in my sleep. I could feel a puddle of salty tears drying beneath my cheek.

"Rin." I heard Sesshomaru-sama call my name, he hadn't said it in a way that required response, or even denoted concern.

I reopened my eyes, he had come before me, kneeling upon a single knee. I hadn't heard his approach. He placed the long fingers of his left hand to my forehead, perhaps checking for fever. I heard snoring, Jaken and Ah-un were sleeping, crouched at the foot of a nearby tree; close enough to the fire to keep warm but far enough to safely give Sesshomaru the space he most often required.

Sesshomaru looked into my eyes, he appeared as I had always remembered him, stoic and strong. Sure of himself and indifferent about anything other than his own goals, whatever they might be. Though in the instant that his flesh touched my own, I was certain that something more broke through the apathetic visage he had adorned since the day I met him. He was unhappy.

But had I ever known him as happy? To even recognize that as a definite change in his mindset?

I watched his eyes slide from me to his outstretched hand, he removed it from my forehead, much too quickly for it to have been a pre-processed movement, and suddenly I was surprised. I had never seen Sesshomaru-sama do anything without first planning it, even if only for a fraction of a moment.

"The miasma you have inhaled is fatal." He said, and now he turned away from me and sat cross legged in front of the fire, his back straight and his head tilted slightly upward, the moon gleaming off of his sleek silver hair.

I wasn't surprised.

He didn't elaborate further. He was not the type to, and besides, there was no room for confusion. I allowed a few more tears to leave my eyes, a sob to escape my lips. I said I wasn't surprised, not that I wasn't saddened by this news.

"Don't do that." Said Sesshomaru-sama, and I immediately stopped the audible crying, though I could not stop the tears.

"Where do I go from here?" I asked. And he turned his head slightly, I could see his lips move in profile. He did not look down at me.

"Wherever you choose to." He replied unfeelingly.

His response made me angry, how could he be so cold? Why did he save me, just to ignore me?! Just to go back to being exactly as he had always been. Concerned for no one and no thing, least of all a mere human.

Now that he had removed me from my most immediate peril would he return to his journeying, leaving me here to die on my own? At last truly free of me and his inexplicable desire to save me from all possible threats, a desire that had probably plagued the unfathomable depths of his mind since first he did so years ago.

What caused him to return to me, to save me from death but not from all of the other pains that presented themselves in life? From the hurt that I felt when he left me with Kaede, to the sorrow I feel now that I know my lifespan has been irreparably altered? Couldn't he see that I still needed saving…from myself?

"Why did you come to save me, Sesshomaru-sama?" I asked him, my voice scratchy and coarse among a throat that had been rubbed raw.

He turned his head back to the stars. "You needed me." He replied, his voice level. "I have completed my task, I will not linger here much longer."

My eyes flew wide, I mustered up every ounce of strength I possessed and pushed myself off the forest floor; pressing my raw hands into dirt and rocks and wincing from discomfort, a bead of sweat trailing down my temple from effort. I grabbed his arm, smearing dirt and the slightest hint of blood on a perfectly white sleeve, "I've always needed you!" I hissed. "All you see, all you have ever seen, is life or death and not the moments in between. There is more to my life than just the moments when I may die!"

"Lay back down, Rin." He said, he had not moved. I peeled my fingers away from his arm, using the hand to shove hair away from my face.

"You want me to lay here until I die…?" I asked quietly, adjusting the boa around myself. Sesshomaru turned to me in profile once more. "Lady Kaede smiled in death. She found her happiness. I will find mine. I won't die here in this forest waiting for you to need me too!" I slid my legs under myself, preparing to stand, my eyes locked on Sesshomaru's stoic face. But then, before my legs properly found themselves and I had more than a moment to even think of what I was about to do, I leaned forward and gave him the smallest kiss on the cheek. He slid his amber eyes further sideways in his face, "thank you, Sesshomaru-sama, for saving me. But I am going to find a proper place to die."

I glanced momentarily upward. "I did not want to do this." I whispered, my eyes half closed and my face tilted toward the sickle moon; and then I grabbed his arm once more, placing a long kiss upon that same cool cheek before I gathered his boa around me and with trembling legs began walking.

----

Sesshomaru faced the fire, listening to Rin's uneven, retreating footsteps. He glanced at his left hand, watched it as he raised it to his cheek where she had kissed him. He had never touched anyone with that hand before, nothing except his Bakusaiga had ever rested in its grasp. But in her sleep he had wiped her bloody face with it, and touched it to her warm forehead when she awoke.

She said she needed him. But what else was there to need except life assurance? Certainly she could find whatever else it was that she required outside of him? Just as he could find everything he desired outside of her. He had never required her assistance with anything, nor she his outside of any matter other than the prospect of her untimely demise.

His hand was still upon his cheek. He removed it. Standing to his feet and taking off in the direction she had walked. He found her less than a mile away, wading to the other side of a shallow hot spring, dragging his boa along with her. She had climbed out of it before he reached her, her back to him, she squeezed water from her hair.

He dropped his blouse over her shoulders.

She continued wringing out her hair. "Thank you, Sesshomaru-sama." She said, and now she fastened it around her waist. He stood behind her for minutes more, looking out at their surroundings. Was this what she considered a proper place to die?

He balled the fingers of his left hand into a fist. He watched her tilt her head toward the ground, he knew she had begun to cry, and noticed that these tears had again reached the consistency of blood. He could see the red droplets splash against his white blouse where it puddled in her lap, much too large for her.

He placed a hand upon her shoulder, and slowly she raised her head to him, the red tears streaming her cheeks, her brown eyes barely open, and now, for only the second time in Lord Sesshomaru's life, he acted impulsively. He placed that left hand upon her cheek, bringing her into what could only be closely described as an embrace. Her head hugged to his hip, her bloody tears streaming from her eyes and crawling over his fingers.

"Then die in my arms." He whispered, as if answering a question she hadn't even asked. But she nodded her head in understanding, nuzzling further into his hip.

They stayed there like that, frozen in the moment, until Rin's breathing slowed, her pulse weekend. Sesshomaru could only feel it beating faintly alongside his own, sluggishly churning the last bit of blood that would ever pulse through her heart. He placed his right hand to the place in her chest where he knew it rested, as it slowly began to fail her.

"Rin." He said her name softly, as if attempting to wake her from what was only sleep. She parted her eyes, the smallest gleam of them shining through her dark lashes. He lowered his head to hers, staring into them, and then he kissed her lips.


	4. Chapter 4

Authors Notes: Once again, I don't own Inu Yasha. Furthermore, I figured I should explain why I repeat myself sometimes in my writing. It's actually because it just reminds me of the Inu Yasha cartoon. Like why did all of you just repeat the same thing about the Shikon Jewel 7 times? So yeah, that's where that comes from. This is just a short chapter really quick, I'm quite distracted by another Sessh/Rin fic I'm in the process of writing. I will be posting it soon. Be looking out for "Reckless," coming soon to a near you.

---

A fire erupted in his heart, his mind, even in the depths of his barely opened eyes. Paining him to answer the question of just what he was doing. Just what could he be thinking, to place his lips upon this human's?

His father's face flashed before his eyes, weak in life and in death as he lost everything. As he died to save the human bilge that became the mother of the only link he had to the once great dog-demon.

He was nothing like him. He would never be. So pathetic a demon to render his life worthless all for a human. A human that would soon be dead anyway, would have been dead sooner rather than later regardless, simply because that was the way of her kind. He knew this. He had accepted this. And more importantly, _he did not_ _care. _

Sesshomaru snapped his face away, his throat burning. His lips tingling. The tips of his fingers numb. Rin leaned her head forward, coughing up more blood.

"Sesshomaru-sama…" She suddenly whispered, her voice faint. But he had already seen it. Thick purplish miasma had begun to churn itself into haunting shapes all around them, bodies rising from the ground with grossly disfigured appendages and strangely disjointed limbs. Sesshomaru covered Rin's mouth and nose with his hand, his eyes sharply focused on a figure in the distance, one with a long plait of golden hair, and large pupil-less eyes.

He advanced, his mouth a thin smudge of color stretched too wide, as if it were hung on a hinge like some grotesque puppet. He was smiling.

"You will not take what is already mine, Dog Demon." He said methodically, "what she has already begun to give me." And before Sesshomaru could move to draw his Tenseiga once more, Rin had dissolved through his finger tips with a feeble cry, and the miasma army was upon him.

Slaughtering them in his wake, he tore after Rennesaiga, who now held a limp Rin tucked under his arm. A sword in his free hand. It did not take Sesshomaru long to reach him, the clang of sword upon sword causing every woodland creature in the near vicinity who had not yet died of poison to flee.

Rennesaiga lunged and Sesshomaru parried, facing Rennesaiga's back and prepared to shove his sword into him once more, much the same way he already had. But Rennesaiga was faster now, more alive now, than he had been when first they met. He whipped around, holding Rin in front of Sesshomaru's blade by her hair. Sesshomaru recoiled his sword more quickly than he expected himself to.

"I should mention," crooned Rennesaiga, dangling Rin like a child's rag doll, "that if I die, she dies. For she is a part of me now, has been since the first minute of the hour she entered my castle. Weak, desperate, pitiful as all humans are, she was unable to take all of herself back from me. Everything I took from her is mine now, so shall be everything I will take."

Sesshomaru growled, poised to attack once more, his Tenseiga flaring, his body already leaned forward, but Rennesaiga continued, " You should be happy, shouldn't you, Dog Demon?" I am taking her off of your hands," and Sesshomaru stopped, a frown creasing his lips. It was in that moment that Rennesaiga smirked and dissolved, just as quietly as he had arrived. Rin still dangling in his hands.

--

I crouched upon my knees amongst the members or Rennesaiga's court. My head lowered to the ground as I tried to ignore the discomfort of the position. On either side of me were his soul-less minions, waiting to be beckoned by him and ordered to complete some menial task.

My skin was sore, bleeding in places from where it had begun to deteriorate. The nails upon my hands were chipping away, leaving tender pink flesh beneath the places where they once were. My hair was overlong, reminiscent of the wild branches of a swaying willow tree. I could no longer talk, my voice had been stripped from me by the very atmosphere in this place.

But I was _still_ alive.

I could tell Rennesaiga was becoming impatient.

It had been seven days since he stole me from Sesshomaru-sama.

Seven days that I remained within the walls of his miasma filled castle and not succumb to its power.

_Seven days since Sesshomaru-sama placed a kiss upon my lips. _

I blushed slightly. A small flush upon my drained, pale cheeks as I remembered the feeling of our lips pressed together.

I knew it was that memory that was keeping me alive, even as my body died.

--

Sesshomaru had not attempted to return to Rennesaiga's castle.

If he killed the demon, he would kill the girl by association. He pursed his thin lips, staring down at his left hand upon his knee as he sat near the edge of the steaming hot spring from which Rin had been stolen. His back to the very rock she had sat upon.

Around him thickets of thorny roses had begun to spring up, dead upon their branches from the moment they budded. Ominously foreshadowing the rise of the demon who once remained trapped within a single flower.

If he did not kill the demon, the demon would kill her. He raised that hand to his lips, holding it there. Maybe she was already dead. And wasn't that just as well? She had lived, she would die. There was nothing more to it now than how much time it took to get from one to the other.

_Unless he considered the moments in between_.

Unless he considered the fact that right now, if Rin had not died already, she was suffering. And he was rather certain indeed, that she was still quite alive. And he knew it was because she was unable to die. Because in that kiss he placed upon her lips, she had given him a much bigger part of herself than she had ever given Rennesaiga.

_But he did not want it_.

_He did not want anything of the human's. _

_He would not accept it. _

The girl could not relinquish her soul to Rennesaiga so long as she loved him. So long as part of it remained with him. But only if he kept it. Fostered it. Allowed her love to become a part of him as well. And he would _not _do it.

He would not even entertain the idea that perhaps he already had. That even by allowing her to remain among him as a child he had begun to accept some miniscule amount of her being into himself. And that over the years it had grown into him and of him, so that she was to him just as his Tenseiga or Bakusaiga were.

Suddenly his eyes narrowed. He would not let Renessaiga have what belonged to him.


End file.
